Overall Member Rating

Western Caribbean on NCL Pearl

This is our second cruise and we prefer NCL because of freestyle dining and excellent kids programs since we have kids (ages 4 and 1). check-in at Miami was painful.. took 1 hour (we arrived at 12 noon). Next time, we plan to have lunch outside and come at 1.30 ish so that the crowds could be less. Without kids, it would have been allright but with kids, it is difficult. After lunch, we walked around the ship and caught a little bit of the football game on the big screen. It was fun to watch. NCL had most of the major games on the big screen through out the cruise. 1st stop Great Stirrup Cay was a lot of fun. Disembarked at 930AM and there was no line. Plenty of chairs and lunch buffet was excellent picnic style. Dont forget to take beach towels from your cabin.
Next stop Ocho Rios Jamaica. Rainy day. We took Courtney Taylor private tour and the driver was enthusiastic and showed us real Ocho rios down to local markets etc, Dunn RIver falls is not for little kids to climb but More
there are places to get into the water and experience it. Dont forget to get water shoes. If you forget, there is a little store to buy them. Grand Cayman: Sting Ray and Turtle farm exursion was cancelled because of high waters, so we took a local mini bus to Royal Palm beach (4$ each way and 2$ entrance fee per person)Waters were great. Last stop Cozumel (NCLs excursion for sting rays is for kids over age 4 and so we couldnt do that here too) we took the mini sub reef explorer and it was great. Saw plenty of fish (kids fell asleep).

SHows on the ship were excellent My 4 yr old also enjoyed most of the shows (Encore-broaddway style show was fantastic). Mini-suite on pearl had a full bathroom with tub. If you like real soap bars, bring your own since they have soap and shampoo dispensors. Food at garden buffet was good but gets monotonous since we had little kids, we didnt try many of the speciality places. But Summer palace was good too. Walking path around the ship on level 7 was great. Out 1 yr old ould run to her heart's content. Staff were friendly and daily there had drink specials (5$ margaritas, 15$ Mohitos unlimited etc). Outside of these specials, drink are expensive as expected. Disembarkation was smooth. At 8.30 AM, customs and immigration took 30 mins and there were plenty of taxis.
Overall great cruise. Less